Chocolate and walnut sweet pasta recipe (maccheroni dolce). A traditional holiday recipe from Umbria.

Method6 steps · about 12 hr 45 min

1. 1

   Step 1: Grind or crush the walnuts (200 g) into small pieces (not too fine) in a food processor. You can also put them in a bag and crush them with a rolling pin or mallet.

   Uses 200 g walnuts (7oz) (ground or finely chopped)

2. 2

   Step 2: Put the ground walnuts in a bowl, add the breadcrumbs (200 g) and sugar (100 g) and mix. Then add the 2 kinds of cocoa and mix again. Next put in the cinnamon and lemon zest and finally add the rum and Alchermes (100 g) (or just rum). Mix everything together well. Remove a cupful of the mixture and set aside.

   Uses All crushed walnuts · 200 g breadcrumbs (7oz) · 100 g sugar (3.5oz) (I used fine cane sugar) · 25 g sweet cocoa (1oz) · 25 g bitter cocoa (1oz) · 1 tsp cinnamon powder · Zest from half a lemon · 100 g Alchermes only for Alchermes-and-rum route

   
3. 3

   Step 3: Boil the pasta in unsalted water a little beyond al dente, until slightly soft and sticky. Reserve 1 cup of cooking water before draining. Add the drained pasta to the main chocolate-walnut mixture, keeping the reserved cupful of dry mixture aside. Mix well; add only a little reserved cooking water if the mixture seems dry.

   Uses 200 g eggless dried pasta tubes (maccheroni, rigatoni or tortiglioni) · Unsalted water to boil pasta; reserve 1 cup, then use only some if mixture is dry · The chocolate-walnut mixture remaining after reserving 1 cup topping

4. 4

   Step 4: Put the pasta and chocolate mix into a round, square or rectangular dish. I used a springform cake tin. Using a spatula or wooden spoon press the cake down so that the surface is even and the sides are full. You don’t want gaps along the edges ofthe cake.

   Uses All combined sweet pasta and main chocolate-walnut mixture

5. 5

   Step 5: Spread the extra chocolate and walnut mixture over the top of the cake. Then melt the dark chocolate (50 g) with some of the pasta cooking water in the microwave or on the stove top. Then pour and spread this sauce over the top of the cake.

   Uses The pressed sweet pasta cake · The reserved 1 cup chocolate-walnut mixture · 50 g dark chocolate (2oz) · Some of the remaining reserved cooking water to melt chocolate

6. 6

   Step 6: Refrigerate for 12 hours or overnight. Bring your Umbrian sweet pasta cake to room temperature before slicing and serving!

   Refrigerate sweet pasta cake 12 hours or overnight · 720 minUses All glazed sweet pasta cake